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Apache Down, Crew Safe

Aired January 13, 2004 - 12:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Apache down in the Sunni Triangle. For the second time in less than a week, the third time this month, Iraqi insurgents have shot down a U.S. helicopter, but this time, the crew survived. Not so a number of insurgents who targeted the mayor's office in the hotbed city of Fallujah.
We get the latest on all of this from CNN's Karl Penhaul, joining us live now from Baghdad -- Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.

That Apache attack helicopter went down in the town of Habinea (ph). That's about 40 or 50 miles west of Baghdad, deep in the Sunni Triangle, which, as you know, has been the heartland of guerrilla resistance against coalition forces. Coalition military authorities say that helicopter was most probably shot down. Witnesses who have been talking to reporters near the scene say they saw a flash, possibly from a rocket or a missile, just before that helicopter came down to earth.

That said, U.S. military authorities do tell us that the two-man crew has survived. The Apache, as you know, one of the most sophisticated helicopters in the U.S. fleet, multimillion-dollars worth of weaponry, and also spotting equipment and infrared cameras and the like.

But the crew, as I said, did survive. Not so in two previous attacks this month, when two other helicopters came down. The most deadly late last week when a Blackhawk helicopter crashed in this region; all nine people aboard died there.

Now in another incident, Miles, also in the Sunni Triangle, in the town of Fallujah this time, officials at the mayor's office say that unidentified assailants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at U.S. paratroopers guarding the mayor's office. The paratroopers then responded with fire, and in a gunfight three Iraqis were killed, including one woman. Not precisely clear at this stage what relationship the dead had to that attack on the paratroopers.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Karl Penhaul in Baghdad, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired January 13, 2004 - 12:59   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Apache down in the Sunni Triangle. For the second time in less than a week, the third time this month, Iraqi insurgents have shot down a U.S. helicopter, but this time, the crew survived. Not so a number of insurgents who targeted the mayor's office in the hotbed city of Fallujah.
We get the latest on all of this from CNN's Karl Penhaul, joining us live now from Baghdad -- Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.

That Apache attack helicopter went down in the town of Habinea (ph). That's about 40 or 50 miles west of Baghdad, deep in the Sunni Triangle, which, as you know, has been the heartland of guerrilla resistance against coalition forces. Coalition military authorities say that helicopter was most probably shot down. Witnesses who have been talking to reporters near the scene say they saw a flash, possibly from a rocket or a missile, just before that helicopter came down to earth.

That said, U.S. military authorities do tell us that the two-man crew has survived. The Apache, as you know, one of the most sophisticated helicopters in the U.S. fleet, multimillion-dollars worth of weaponry, and also spotting equipment and infrared cameras and the like.

But the crew, as I said, did survive. Not so in two previous attacks this month, when two other helicopters came down. The most deadly late last week when a Blackhawk helicopter crashed in this region; all nine people aboard died there.

Now in another incident, Miles, also in the Sunni Triangle, in the town of Fallujah this time, officials at the mayor's office say that unidentified assailants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at U.S. paratroopers guarding the mayor's office. The paratroopers then responded with fire, and in a gunfight three Iraqis were killed, including one woman. Not precisely clear at this stage what relationship the dead had to that attack on the paratroopers.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Karl Penhaul in Baghdad, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com